Today's guest author is Hugh Aaron, author of the wonderful new book, Stories From a Lifetime. Hugh is a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, and received a Liberal Arts degree in the Humanities at The University of Chicago. For three years as a Seabee, he served in the South Pacific during WWII. He was CEO of his own plastics manufacturing business for 20 years before selling it to write full time. Several of his short stories have been published in the national magazines and 18 of his essays on business management have appeared in The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author of Business Not as Usual: How to Win Managing a Company through Hard and Easy Times. Currently he's writing and producing plays.

Thank you for this interview, Hugh. Can you tell us briefly what your latest book, Stories from a Lifetime, is all about?

Stories from a Lifetime carries readers through a widely diverse series of life’s peaks and valleys with poignant, clear-eyed vision and understanding that is only gradually gained across the course of a lifetime through endurance and honest appraisal of the emotional rollercoaster that we all ride.

Hugh Aaron delicately reveals the world through the innocent eyes of a young boy, through those of a soldier far from home during wartime, and those of a struggling businessman and faltering husband. He is unafraid to reveal panic beneath a façade of success, the deep and hollow sadness that may exist in an outwardly happy marriage, the yearning we feel to make a break for freedom from the rat race, the unexpected emotional responses that shift lives far beyond the expected course of events.

These stories form a welcome, and increasingly rare, honest, grounded, and beautifully written collection that will touch nerves while sympathizing with what it means to be human.

Can you tell us who or what was the inspiration behind your book?

Each story, written at a different period of my life, was inspired by what issues were most on my mind at the time. In a sense, the totality of the collection is a disguised autobiography.

Is this your first published book and if so, can you tell us your experiences in finding a publisher for it?

Stories from a Lifetime is my eleventh published book.

Can you tell us how long it took you to write your book and also how long it took from the time Stones Point Press sent the contract and the time it was released?

SFAL was written over a period 55 years, thus the entire short story collection took years to write. The stories range in length from a single page to fifty pages. The publisher has accepted my books as soon as I submit them provided I agreed to a thorough editing.

Do you have any words of inspiration from other writers who would like to be wearing your shoes?

Write for your own sake, first. Forget having a best seller and becoming famous.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on a collection of essays on a variety of subjects from American foreign policy to the act of writing fiction.

Thank you for this interview, Hugh. Can you tell us how we can find out more about you and your new book?